Global Digital Penetration to Reach 87 Percent by 2017

LONDON: The number of digital TV homes is expected to double between 2011 and 2017, reaching 1.3 billion, with penetration standing at 86.7 percent by the end of that period, according to the new Digital TV World Household Forecasts report.

Global digital penetration was at just 48.6 percent at the end of 2011. This means 648 million digital TV homes will be added between 2011 and 2017, with 259 million coming from digital cable. Digital cable will be the most popular TV platform by the end of 2017, accounting for 32.4 percent of the world’s TV households. Analog cable will still be serving 4.1 percent of the TV homes. 

Simon Murray, report author, said: “There were still 714 million analog TV households (both terrestrial and cable, with a few analog DTH ones) by end-2011. However, this total will fall to 202 million by end-2017. Analog penetration will drop from 51.4 percent at end-2011 to 13.3 percent by end-2017.”

Of the net additions expected for digital TV households added in the period, 68 percent will be in the Asia Pacific, bringing its total to 714 million. China became the largest digital TV national in 2010; by the end of 2017, the country will have 417 million digital homes. India will overtake the U.S. in 2017.

Global digital penetration will reach 87 percent by the end of 2017, with North America at 100 percent and Latin America at 76 percent. By the end of 2017, 47 countries will be completely digital; at the end of 2011, only Finland and Spain had completed this task.

The total pay-TV penetration is expected to rise to 63 percent by end-2017, with North America at 87 percent, and the Middle East and Africa at 22 percent. China will have the most pay-TV subscribers, at 315 million, with India following at 145 million.